Waking Up...just a little

We had our first power outage last night for about 3ish hours. Not a big deal. We were watching a movie on our dvd player, so we just laughed and waited it out. If you're planning on coming, bring a reading flashlight. It may come in handy. We ended up using our cell phones as flashlights. It works, unless you want to read!

We had our SDA apptmt today, which explains why we're so tired...I could hardly sleep last night! Anna met us at 11:30am and we walked, since it's relatively close. Wow, what amazing history is here! I love the history of WWII, so to hear that none of the churches here made it through the war, but have been restored, just blows my mind. They are so magnificent and you can see them from miles. One church is bright yellow, another pale blue, and yet another is pretty pink. And these three historical churches are located close to the SDA. We also passed a very regal government building.

The meeting was quick (only an hour). We were called in to an office after waiting on a staircase for a few minutes. Constantine was our translator. We met with someone who first asked to get to know us better. We told her who we were, what we do, and that, yes, we do want to adopt. She then explained to us that there are no healthy children available for adoption, which we said we knew. She showed us lots of kids! And they were all precious. We even saw two sets of twins (can you believe it). One set was diagnosed with FAS, and the other set has a child with a history of epilepsy, which is being controlled by meds. While all the children were very sweet, one little boy stood out for me. He had this look on his face that screamed trouble. I can just see him being the kind of rough and tumble child that gets in to everything and is somewhat fearless. Yes, I know. That's a lot to draw from a one year old photo of a 3 year old. We travel tomorrow and see him on Friday. He has some medical conditions we are preparing to evaluate. He walks on his toes and needs orthepedic surgery. No big deal. He also has a slight cross eye. Not a problem. But the one thing that concerns me is that he needs to have fluid drained from his brain. Apparantely this is something that will need tending to for about 6-12months, and then disappears. Unfortunately I don't remember any of the official diagnoses.

All together we were shown about 6 single children, and two sets of twins...and only 2 were girls. If you're hoping for a girl, pray hard! There are many more boys available for adoption here. Not an issue with us because we don't have any children yet. So next time we'll hope for a girl.

Dave has been going through WIFI withdrawls...he just has to have it. But I've convinced him that paying 12 grivna an hour is nothing (that's $1.50USD). We'll be in another big city soon, so it doesn't make sense to worry about WIFI here.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention...most of the people here are very friendly and used to us crazy Americans (as well as other countrymen) being here. Kiev is a very international city, espeically with all the international adoptions. As long as you make an effort to say something (even as simple as spasiba - thank you) you'll get a smile and very positive results. I even had a cashier tell me that I had water with gas, and she exchanged it for water without gas. I'm very impressed.

Prayer Requests
1. Safety
2. Wisdom for Friday
3. Health - we're taking all the precautions, but you never know what may getcha!